How Do We Measure Development?

In this sound judge manpowert, I will be comparing two very different countries France and Zimbabwe. I will be comparing their victimization using breeding indicators. I go chosen a MEDC (More Economically Developed Country) which is France, and I have chosen a LEDC (Less Economically Developed Country) which is Zimbabwe. I will be using development indicators to show how they relate to the provinces development and how the two countries argon different. The development indicators that I have chosen be look antepast, gross domestic product per capita, Mortality yard, and Unemployment.These indicators are very different from each other and will be refined in comparing France and Zimbabwe. The North s extincthward Divide is the division in the World between developed countries and undeveloped countries. This is an indicator to wherever of non a estate is a MEDC or LEDC. There is a development go against between the MEDCs and the LEDCs which is the difference in economi c wealth that exists. The gap is largely due to the fact that developing countries have not underg unrivaled ripe industrialisation.There are eight master(prenominal) characteristics that identify a little developed country Little or no modern effort, elevated Birth Rate or rapidly increasing commonwealths, Farming is the of import economic activity, High poverty, High illiteracy rate and upset expert levels, Poor diets which ca offices starvation, malnutrition and other diseases, Poor Transport facilities, Lack of sufficient services. I will use the eight master(prenominal) characteristics above in my assessment when explaining the indicators as a confirmation to why Zimbabwe is a LEDC and why France is a MEDC.I will now start my assessment by providing accentuate knowledge ab out(a) my two chosen countries France and Zimbabwe. France is located in western sandwich Europe and excessively has various other territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica. France covers 547,030 square kilometres (211,209 square miles), and has the largest area in the European Union and second largest in Europe. France has a variety of landscapes, including the small(a)-lying wetlands and the high school mountain ranges known as the Alps in the south-east. crossways France there are rivers, lakes, salt marshes, gentle hills as rise as mountains, flat plains and coasts. France has four main rivers, the longest of which is the Loire. Most of France has mild winters and substantial summers however the mountainous areas such as the Alps have frequently colder winter and bring heavy snow falls. In France there are many historic towns, such as Chartres, Orleans and Reims, with lots of historic castles in the Loire Valley, which attract tourists. The capital city of France is Paris and is famous for the flipper museum and Notre Dame Cathedral.France is also known worldwide for the wood that it p roduce, in specific its wine and cheese. France is a very developed country and it possesses the fifth largest scrimping in the world. It receives 82 million foreign tourists annually and is a fragment of the European Union, United Nations, G8, NATO, and the Latin Union. France also owns the largest sum up of atomic weapons and nuclear power plants in the European Union. France is a democracy in which the multitude elect member of the subject Assembly and Senate, which unneurotic make up the Parliament.France does not have a royal family since it became a republic in 1789. Every seven years, a President is elected for the French Republic. Frances economic wealth is created by different types of production Primary ( commonwealth and exploit), secondary (manufacturing industries) and tertiary (high- tech industries and services). Until recently, manufacturing industries provided most of Frances wealth and jobs, further this has now changed. Since the oil crisis in 1979, the secondary sector in the employment structure has been decreasing duration the tertiary sector has been increasing.This has resulted in large numbers of unemployment and France is now the country with the second highest unemployment rate, which has deeply affected the countrys wealth. France was issued the single European currency, the euro, in 2002, together with 15 other EU member states. This forms the Euro zone. Zimbabwe is located in southerly Africa, between South Africa and Zambia. Zimbabwe covers an area of 390,580 square kilometres. The terrain of Zimbabwe is mostly high plateau and mountains in the east of the country. The terrain is therefore highly useful for the particular effort especially farming.Like many countries in Africa, primary industry is the main economic activity in Zimbabwe. It generates most of the countrys income, however to reach development, industrialization is need only if the country cannot afford this. The humor is tropical but a rainy season occurs between November to March. The official diction of Zimbabwe is English, but the majority of the tribe speak Shona which is the native language of the Shona nation. The other language that is spoken widely in Zimbabwe is Sindebele by the Matabele people.In a full flood, the massive Victoria Falls on the river forms the worlds largest curtain of falling water. The population of Zimbabwe is 13,349,000 million although the animation anticipation is only 38 years which is super low. Life expectancy and babe Mortality Rate Life Expectancy is the number of years that an individual is expected to harp as obdurate by statistics gained over a year for a selected country. It is calculated for men and women separately as swell as together. Generally women live long-lasting than men in most countries but that is not always the cutting in some countries.Many simple things affect life anticipation which is the main problem in developed countries such as France where the main problems are smoking, obesity, and drugs. all the same, these problems are in peoples control and are mostly peoples actions. barely in undeveloped countries like Zimbabwe, the main problems would be AIDS, malnutrition, curable diseases, and civilian strife. These factors take a tremendous toll on human life.The Life Expectancy for France and Zimbabwe are France Zimbabwe World Male 80. 87 39. 73 66. 12 Female 77. 68 40. 87 64. 18 Male and Female 84. 23 38. 55 8. 2 It is very clear that the life expectancy is significantly lower in Zimbabwe than in France. Zimbabwes population has such a low life expectancy because of the variety of diseases and also the climate. The warm welcoming climate attracts mosquitoes which carry the disease, malaria. Hepatitis A and typhoid are also common in Zimbabwe because of the worthless hygiene standards and uncleanly water. In Zimbabwe there is not often clean water around therefore people are hale to drink this unclean water and combined with pitiable wellness keeping this gives Zimbabwe its low life expectancy.Another explanation to Zimbabwes low life expectancy is its high infant mortality rate. Infant Mortality Rate is the stopping point rate during the first year of a newborn treats life. Over one tenth of any newborn African dies within its first year. Infant Mortality Rates greatly affects a countrys life expectancy because every newborn baby dieing in its first year still applies to the number of years an individual lives. Compared to France, the life expectancy of France is high because of its good health care and constant supply of clean water.The Infant Mortality Rate of France is 3. 6 deaths/1,000 live births which is very low compared to Zimbabwe. The population per doctor in Zimbabwe is 16,667 therefore treatment in Zimbabwe is exceedingly limited and most people relying on natural healers who provide sick people with herbs and plants which usually dont have much effect on curing diseases. The Life E xpectancy is higher in France because France provides excellent healthcare whereas in Zimbabwe the healthcare is very poor and there are only a few hospitals. Because the healthcare is poor many of the people die or they refer to tribal healers who use ancient healing methods which most of the time fail to work.They can also make the illness worse. The Infant Mortality Rate is also low in France because of the excellent services that hospitals provide during the operation and after the baby is born. In France there are 303 people per doctor and so this confirms that healthcare in France is widely available. Also the climate in France is perfect to stay off catching diseases, resulting in less early deaths increasing the life expectancy. mediocre water is supplied to houses through safe taps whereas people in Zimbabwe live in huts and have to collect water from lakes which are usually infected.To conclude, life expectancy is an good indicator in measuring the development of a coun try, because it takes into account healthcare, standards hygiene i. e. food and water, disease, and infant mortality rate, and the availability of aesculapian services. However, it is not a brilliant indicator because diseases in Zimbabwe like malaria are unavoidable due to the fact that mosquitoes are found in Zimbabwe because of the acrid weather. Zimbabwe has a much lower life expectancy because it amazes from problems like malaria, malnutrition, unclean poor, and poor healthcare which developed countries like France do not suffer from.However developed countries like France suffer from minor problems that can be easily prevented such as obesity, smoking, and drugs. These minor problems are increasing in the modern world. It is already affecting many countries and therefore needs to be prevented. I have mostly explained the difference between the countries of Life Expectancy and Infant Mortality Rate but there is one beta similarity and that is that both countries have proble ms that need to be extinguished. GDP per Capita and Unemployment GDP per Capita is a commonly accepted measure of development and stands for Gross municipal Product per Capita.It is used to help identify the standard of living for a country by measuring a countries wealth. So GDP per Capita is the cyberspace value of all goods and services produced by a country in that specific country only in one year divided by the population of that country. France has a GDP per Capita of $32,700 whereas Zimbabwes GDP per Capita is $200. This is a ample difference and there are many reasons for this. Human factors as well as physical factors both affect Zimbabwe, resulting in the low gross national product per capita.Since Zimbabwes independence, it has been through many wars. The most recent war with Congo took millions of dollars out of the frugality and reduced Zimbabwes chances for development. Zimbabwes low GDP per Capita is the result of low industrialization in the country. For this t o occur the country needs specie to travel by on the machinery and Zimbabwe doesnt have a vast amount of currency to spend. This is the reason why Zimbabwes economy is based around the primary industry of farming and mining as the country has a large quantity of expensive minerals.However many of the mines are owned by foreign companies and not by the Zimbabwe Government, resulting in no change in wealth. Also, developed countries like France work with primary- based countries like Zimbabwe because France doesnt have enough primary resources in the country. However, MEDCs bribe the crops and minerals at an extremely low amount. Zimbabwe cannot refuse because the country needs the money to avoid falling in debt. France would then use their advanced manufacturing industry to produce secondary products.France has the wealth to do this because the economy is high. Zimbabwe would then grease ones palms the secondary goods from MEDCs like France at an extremely high amount. Zimbabwe has no plectrum but to purchase the developed goods because the country doesnt have the machinery to convert its primary goods into secondary products. Zimbabwe in the past have tried many National Plans to industrialize the country which is a measuring towards development however to do this Zimbabwe needs Capital and the only say to get this is to barrow huge sums of money from the world banks.In the end, the plans did not work out because the country could not afford to pay back the loans and the factories were never complete. With huge loans to pay off and no complete factories, the country fell into the Third World Debt. by means of trying to industrialise, the countrys economy collapsed resulting in an even worse state than in the first place the plans proceeded. Zimbabwe is therefore stuck in the vicious circle of development at the step where they have no money left and so the output per person is low. Another reason why the GNP per Capita of Zimbabwe is so low is beca use the schooling system is very poor.Without education, people cannot achieve high paid jobs. At the moment in Zimbabwe, most of the jobs are based around farming and mining which doesnt need education and leads to low payment. However most of the population in Zimbabwe is unemployed with the rate being 80% which is roughly 9 million people. As I have mentioned earlier, the war with Congo took millions out of the countrys wealth. This money could have been spent on the education system in Zimbabwe which would have over time increased the GNP per Capita as well as reducing the unemployment rate.Now due to the country debt situation, it cannot afford to spend money on the education. This is the main reason why Zimbabwes GNP per Capita is extremely low. France differs greatly from Zimbabwe however the two countries have some similarities. Frances high economy is the reason for the vast amounts of money entering the country. This wealth is spent to cleanse the country to continue its advanced development. France takes a keen interest in the education system resulting in high paid jobs, increasing the money injected into the economy.This gives the country a high GNP per Capita. A similarity is that France remarkably has the second highest unemployment rate in the industry. The percentage is 12. 6% which is extremely high even though the economy is well- developed. I conclude this section by stating that even though France has an advanced economy, it has some problems. In the future, Zimbabwe needs to insure all its possibilities for development before making a definite decisiveness because the country could just keep shrinking in terms of its economy.